Should I use the FIDS API or Flight Status by Airport API?

The Flight Status by Airport API and the FIDS API are similar but differ in use case. Please see below for more information. You may wish to use both or choose one based on your business requirements.

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FIDS API:

The FIDS API is designed for digital signage in hotel lobbies or arrivals/departures signs in airports. It uses a weighted algorithm and is not designed to retrieve all flights. Rather, it is designed to show a reasonable number of the most relevant flights and has the notion of an arbitrarily specified rolling time window. If you need a precise time window with all matching flights, please use the Flight Status by Airport API.

The default is an eight hour window for class one and two airports. Time of day, number of scheduled flights, current airport delays, and all your other filters will affect the results to produce a reasonable number of flights to display in digital signage. Therefore, your results will vary significantly in many cases. Please note that it will carry over delayed flights that are now estimated to depart in the specified time window.

The Flight Status by Airport API is designed to give you a detailed look at an airport's arrivals and departures. It can optionally return more flights and more available data fields than the FIDS API and you can specify a precise time window of all matching flights.